Field Evaluation of Vehicle to Infrastructure Communication-Based Eco-Driving Guidance and Eco-Signal System

Abstract

In urban areas, the main factor causing excessive fuel consumption is stop-and-go, which is prevalent at urban intersections. To decrease fuel consumption at the intersections, various methods have been proposed and evaluated using simulation models and driving simulators. However, it is not known how reliable the driving simulator results would be when compared with those of the field test. In this paper, eco-driving guidance and eco-signal system based on vehicle-to-infrastructure communication are developed and tested in the field in a multi-vehicle environment. They were also tested using a driving simulator and the results were compared with those of the field test. This was intended to assess the reliability of driving simulator-based study. The field test results at an isolated intersection indicated that the eco-driving guidance could save the fuel consumption around 20%–40% and the eco-signal system could reduce the fuel consumption up to 45%. Although the absolute fuel consumptions between the driving simulator test and the field test did not match, the results from both tests confirmed better performance with eco-driving guidance and eco-signal system when compared with the base scenarios. This indicates that a driving simulator is an effective tool for assessing relative benefits of eco-driving guidance and eco-signal system.